This is how all Hollywood blockbusters should be.

Rating: 7/10 (16 July 2013)

Despite a few too many Guillermo del Toro fantasy movies leaving me cold, particularly with the overrated Pan's Labyrinth, for some reason, I had hope that Pacific Rim would be my Summer hit of the year. It's felt too much like there's not been anything genuine to be excited about with Iron Man 3, Man Of Steel, World War Z and The Lone Ranger to name a few, not satisfying audiences. Although I'm not a fan of Transformers or the other monster movies that are obvious influences, I had hope that Del Toro's art-house sense of cinema would blend well with the Hollywood inevitable attributes, as the latter is the price to pay for a movie of this epic scale. I enjoyed Hellboy back in the day but sometimes it got a little too dark and serious to be fun whereas Pacific Rim looked like a ball from start to finish. And it most certainly is. While too many Summer movies of the last decade find themselves swallowed up by their paint-by- numbers plot with any random thing filling in the gaps, Pacific Rim finds a great balance between the plot and the characters' stories, helped by its talented cast plucked from TV, especially Charlie Hunnam and Charlie Day, my personal favourite.
Its script is constantly surprising and intriguing, even if structurally predictable, and it sets up its world in a fascinating way in those first few minutes. Although it can be melodramatic, whenever it dragged it picked itself back up again and set the stakes back in motion. It's an absolute delight to have a movie with actual set-pieces to balance out with the all-CGI world too, I just love the inside the Jaeger set. However, admittedly, there are times when the action is frustratingly cluttered, it has awesome and truly involving moments that completely make up for those moments of confusion. A scale like this hasn't been touched since The Lord Of The Rings and here it's is utterly awe-spiring. But what makes it special is that the action always means something to the characters and the plot and is never there for the sake of banal excitement. It has a great sense of humour too though sometimes it can be a bit too campy but that seems to be the lashings of Del Toro's style. Nevertheless, Pacific Rim is one of the most entertaining blockbusters in a long, long time thanks to its characters, great writing and creative epic special effects. This is how it's done.
7/10